The 2nd category was regular video games that contained some form of educational material but wasn't solely focused on education. For example the Civilization series that was a RTS that involved historical figures and world land marks but really wasn't meant to be an educational tool. The third category is research-based educational video games of which the most famous is the game Oregon Trail.
The real debate is whether or not these games really help children learn more or less than traditional teaching methods. Nielsen says that " players seem to learn the same things when using video games as when taught by other methods, although a student's retention may be better with the former."(pg.219) With my experience with educational games they seemed to be more of the "drill-and-practice" type like Math Blasters. With these types of games it is mainly just memorization with math facts or spelling certain words correctly in order to get to the next level. This technique really isn't any different than what I was being taught in schools. I had to memorize my multiplication tables just the same as I memorized the answers in each level of Math Blasters. So I would have to agree with the conclusions that Nielsen comes up with that they don't really help any more than regular styles of education.
I definitely think that video games can have a place in the classroom though. Nielsen brings up the fact that teacher participation is needed in order to enforce what parts of the game are important. The real trouble though is having the games some how be more about the learning than the actual game play. I think maybe bringing interactive games in to the lectures and lesson plans can help make students focus on the subject being taught and maybe bring some competitiveness and incentive to the classroom.
Do you think we will ever see Edutainment games become more of a part of the classroom than just a solo activity during a break time? How can we make games more educational and fun? or is that just something kids don't want together?
When I used to attend the elementary school, we didn't have computer labs or classes that required computer uses. However, now, many elementary schools use computers or some other electronic devices to teach students (at least they attempt or consider using computers as a core element of teaching). If Edutainment games prove themselves that they are as or more effective than traditional learning methods, the chance that edutainment games will replace the current traditioanl teaching methods are relatievely high in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteMore and more students regardless of ages are playing video games and this phenemenon surely affects negatively on their time spending on academics. Thus I believe if edutainment games can encourage students to get interested in acdademics even a little bit, that is much better than not interested in academics at all.